Threats to the Open Net: July 27, 2012

The Beijing police have announced a successful "clean-up" of the web, in which ten thousand internet cafes were inspected, five thousand people were arrested for Internet crime, and seven thousand web site administrators were punished. The police described the clean-up as necessary for preserving the physical and mental health of Chinese youth and in the same statement, threatened that netizens "attacking" the government would be severely punished.

The Open Technology Institute at the New American Foundation recently published a report on digital freedom of expression in Uzbekistan, a repressive Asian regime that heavily censors and monitors the Internet, which is the country's primary forum for political activism.

Privacy International has announced its plan to take the UK government to court for allowing the export of surveillance technologies to repressive governments. The group claims that the surveillance industry is dominated by British products and wants the UK to update its export controls to prevent the sale of harmful surveillance technology to oppressive foreign regimes.

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